Short Summary

With future generations facing the grim possibility of cities overcrowded to saturation point, Japanese scientists are exploring the practical possibilities of life ion the ocean bed.

'Project Seatopia,' currently being carried out on Japan's picturesque Izu coastline, is centred around a cigar-shaped, 65-ton habitat designed to submerge to depths of up to 100 metres.

Description

With future generations facing the grim possibility of cities overcrowded to saturation point, Japanese scientists are exploring the practical possibilities of life ion the ocean bed.

'Project Seatopia,' currently being carried out on Japan's picturesque Izu coastline, is centred around a cigar-shaped, 65-ton habitat designed to submerge to depths of up to 100 metres.

Four aquanauts at a time are spending up to a month in the underwater dwelling, and during the three-year experiment, this period is liable to be increased to find out how life under the sea affects a man's physiology, capabilities and emotional stability.

Conditions for the aquanauts are fairly comfortable if a little confined. The habitat is airconditioned, and three are bedrooms, a shower-room and a laboratory for research. On the floating pontoon at the surface, connected by lifelines to the house beneath, scientists keep constant watch on the aquanauts with closed-circuit TV.

When it is time for the aquanauts to be relived, they are winched to the surface in a seven-ton transfer capsule which acts a shuttle between habitat and pontoon. They then most spend 27 hours in a decompression chamber to bring their body-pressures back t normal.

SYNOPSIS: The prosect of underwater ??? no longer a Jules Verne fantas??? life on the surface gets incr??? and unbearably crowded, Japanese scientists off the coast of Izu ??? experimenting with an ocean-ber ??? which could well be the prototype of ??? twenty-first century family house. 'Project Seatopia' resolves ar??? cigar-shaped, sixty-five-ton ??? built along submarine lines, de??? to rest on the ocean bod at a dept ??? up to one hundred metres.

In the early months of Project Seat??? this summer, groups of four aquanauts are spending up to a month below in the habitat, But as the three-year expe??? progresses they'll be called upon to spend much longer periods submerge??? scientists determine how life under the sea affects a human being's physiology, capabilities and mental health.

Once the habitat is below, it can be entered from the underside, through ??? air-lock. After their month inside, ??? aquanauts are. winched to the surface again in a special seven-ton tran??? shuttle....and must spend twenty -s??? hours in a dec???pression chamber before they can return to normal life.

Scientists on the pontoon at sea-level keep constant vatch on the men on the seabed via three closed -circuit TV cameras placed at various vantage points around the habitat.

Life in the habitat is cramped but reasonably comfortable. The aquanauts have a well-stocked kitchen of pre-cooked foods, plus bedrooms. showering facilities and airconditioning throughout. Of course the experimental habitat is many times smaller than a normal family house...but even at this early stage in Project Seatopia it's already proving that future seabed suburb could be a reality.